Top-three selections Sam Darcy and Finn Callaghan headline six 2021 first-round draft picks yet to extend their original contract beyond this season – but there is momentum for Darcy to remain a Bulldog.
They join St Kilda’s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Bomber Ben Hobbs, Sydney’s Angus Sheldrick and Lion Kai Lohmann in being out of contract at season’s end, while the other 14 players chosen in the first round have signed until 2025 or longer.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera played 17 games in an impressive first season in the AFL.Credit:Getty
Industry sources told The Age that negotiations were ongoing for Darcy’s next contract, but there was genuine hope the 19-year-old would re-sign before the season started on March 16.
The 209-centimetre son of Western Bulldogs great Luke Darcy demonstrated his immense potential at both ends of the ground in a four-game cameo, including one final, at the end of last season after recovering from a foot stress fracture.
“It’s a slow build when you’re that height and age, but he plays in a great environment, [and] seems to be loving every moment of what he’s doing,” Darcy’s father told The Age in August. “He seems really happy. It’s a privilege to play sport for a living, and he loves it.”
Negotiations are also progressing well on new deals for midfielders Callaghan and Sheldrick, while Wanganeen-Milera, from Glenelg, is a priority re-signing for the Saints’ new list boss Stephen Silvagni, especially with Adelaide and Port Adelaide likely to be interested in him.
Essendon trio Nik Cox, Archie Perkins (both signed until 2024) and Zach Reid (2025) were the final top-10 picks from the 2020 draft to re-commit in May and June last year, and the Bombers are similarly in no rush to lock away Hobbs, but he will remain at Tullamarine.
The Lions, too, are excited about athletic forward Lohmann, who made two senior appearances in 2022, and he is a key part of their long-term plans.
Ben Hobbs looks to be a big part of the Bombers’ future.Credit:Getty
No.1 pick Jason Horne-Francis’ bombshell move to Port Adelaide as part of a four-club mega deal – after just one difficult season at North Melbourne – saw his agent, Ben Williams, of Players Ink, renegotiate a six-year contract for his client until 2028.
Hawthorn midfielder Josh Ward, the No.7 pick in that draft, inked a fresh two-year deal in mid-January, and Giant Leek Aleer, Richmond’s Tom Brown and Demon Jacob van Rooyen also re-signed since last season ended.
Club list managers typically prefer to lock away first-round draftees ahead of their second season and sometimes even before their rookie campaign, as was the case for Adelaide’s Josh Rachele and Port Adelaide’s Josh Sinn.
The 2021 draft class is already shaping as a strong one, with Collingwood father-son Nick Daicos the winner of last year’s Rising Star award and promising to be a future All-Australian at minimum.
Daicos – who agreed to a four-year deal before he was even drafted – Horne-Francis, Rachele, Ward, Josh Gibcus, Wanganeen-Milera and Hobbs quickly became senior regulars, while Darcy and Callaghan showed impressive glimpses. Gibcus underwent surgery recently and will miss the early rounds of this year after damaging his right upper hamstring tendon in a pre-season training session.
Only Brown, van Rooyen and West Coast’s Campbell Chesser did not appear at senior level last season out of the first-round picks from two years ago.
Chesser was on track for a round one debut in 2022 before suffering a serious ankle injury that wiped out his entire season, while Brown and van Rooyen spent the year developing in the VFL, although van Rooyen went close to breaking into the Demons’ finals side.
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